Lillith the lynx and more...

'Safety was paramount': council defends decision to shoot Lillith the lynx

I felt I had to begin with this outrageous story today: Nov 11 2017: An Eurasian lynx was shot after straying into a caravan park near Aberystwyth town centre almost two weeks after its escape from Borth Wild Animal Kingdom. Asked why the animal could not have been darted, Andrew Venables, a marksman said, it was necessary to get within 10 to 15 metres of an animal to tranquilise it, with the the dart then taking up to 15 minutes to take effect. 

The animal park that owned Lillith said it was devastated and outraged at her killing. Me too!!!

The park had said the 18-month-old lynx did not pose a danger to humans but had warned the public against getting too close. There have never been any recorded attacks by a lynx on a human, according to the park.

I have abridged this text above because there was and is plenty more to say. I am disgusted by what happened here. Once again, there were spurious claims by farmers of it attacking their sheep and there seems to have been a knee-jerk reaction. Just look at this beautiful animal! When are we EVER going to learn to respect an animal's right to life?

I have had my little rant (which I sanitised from what I really felt) but if you disagree and think I am wrong, I would be happy to hear about your reasons too.

During the first week of November this year, I spotted a strange looking roadkill. I had to turn the car around and investigate. This is what it turned out to be (apologies for posting a photo of a dead animal, but it's an important part of the story)...

I still wasn't sure if this was a ferret, polecat, or a hybrid. Whilst chatting to my good friend and entomologist Tim Ransom one evening, it dawned on me that he might be the best person to ask for advice and so I shared my photos with him.

Tim pointed out that it's hard to be sure from a photo and that it can be tricky to tell hybrids from true polecats, but in his opinion, it might well be a polecat.

Next stop was Kent Wildlife Trust, who have been asking for any rare animal sightings. Here is the reply from Stephen Weeks - Medway Valley Warden :

Hi John

 It’s always tricky to tell them apart from photos and I’m no expert, but your photos does show one of the characteristics you’d expect from a polecat (the dark markings on the face extend to the nose – on a ferret there is usually a pale band across the top of the nose). However ferrets can be very varied in their patterns.

 One thing to check, if you still have access to the body, is whether there is a pale throat patch (in polecats it is absent or less than 5cm – greater than 5cm in ferrets). Also, the black along the back shouldn’t have any white guard hairs in polecats, but scattered white hairs in ferrets.

And so, I did check as suggested: no throat patch and no white hairs along the back.

The Wildlife Trust pointed me in the direction of The Vincent Wildlife Trust who had carried out a nationwide survey in 2014/15 and interestingly had no reports of polecat sightings at all in this part of Kent.  They did produce an interesting leaflet though with identifying tips...

I had this reply from Lizzie Croose - Mustelid Conservation Officer:

Hi John

Thanks for your email. As you’ve noted, we didn’t receive any records of polecats in West Kent during the national polecat survey (2014-2015). Of course, that doesn’t mean there weren’t any in the area, as it’s plausible they were present in low numbers but went unrecorded. We have not been collecting polecat records since the national survey finished at the end of 2015, so unfortunately I don’t know what has happened since then, but it’s possible polecats have spread into West Kent. The Kent Mammal Group may know as they may have received more records.

Sorry to not be of more help. 

Best wishes

Lizzie

I fired off an email to the Kent Mammal Group and the very next day had this reply from them:

Hi John

Thanks for getting in touch and your sighting is very interesting. I believe that hybrid polecat/ferrets are living wild in Kent but sadly the chances of finding a genetically pure polecat are very slim. I have however passed your message to a colleague who may be able to give you some more information, he is currently away but will I’m sure be in touch with you soon.

 In the meantime can I ask if you were able to get a photo of the animal you found? in particular its face?

Thanks again John.

Jason

I mailed Jason the pictures that I have and am now awaiting a reply. I will update you as soon as I do hear back. I am really hoping that this can be identified as a true polecat, even though I acknowledge the chances are slim. It would be a very exciting find.

As this entry has by default been a tad wordy, I shall cut and run here and return with another update soon. Thank-you to anybody who was interested enough to get this far.

It's a sad goodbye to the Stig....

Yes indeed: time for another weblog. I recently read a couple of quotes about blogging; here's the first: 'The first thing you learn when you're blogging is that people are one click away from leaving you. So you've got to get to the point, give them some value for their limited attention span.' 

How rude! You don't have a limited attention span do you? Hello...hello.....H-E-L-L-O !

OK...OK, I can take a hint -

The other quote I read was this one: 'I think blogging, by and large, is basically therapy. I think a huge percentage of people who are blogging are doing it for self-therapy.'

Pull up a couch then, I feel the need to confide...

A female moon moth (Actias heterogyna).

I wasn't really expecting this but just 20 days after pupating, one of my moon moths emerged as an adult. How gorgeous are these? Totally! My AES care-sheet had this information: Adults often emerge from the cocoons four-six weeks after pupation. This is a female and a few days later I also had a male...

Apologies, it isn't a great picture of the male is it (these are both just phone shots). I will try to get a better one for a future update. They are living in my studio now, as they cannot be released and do not feed. They actually only live for about a week or so anyway. 

One morning when I checked on them they had left me a little gift...

But are these eggs fertile? I have no idea whether the two of them 'got it on' but according to the information I have they do seem to be the right colour: the infertile ones tend to be a blueish colour. I am caring for them as suggested and will update you should the circle of life start over. 

Speaking of the - 

Last week I had to say goodbye to my friend 'Stig' the stick insect. He was quite an old man in insect terms though; I had cared for him for over a year, which is a good age for his species. I needed to ensure he had a decent and dignified internment and so I constructed a little casket from cardboard, painted it up and placed him inside. He's now in the back garden...

Alright, I know! He was only an insect, and I really don't care if this is thought of as over the top: I like to think that as a captive bug, which he would have been whether I had him or not, I gave him as good and peaceful life as was possible and I shall miss the contact. RIP Stig.

We've talked about new life and the end of a life and so how about something that might be considered half-way between? What am I talking about? Hibernation. The bug count on my walks is falling faster than an MP's reputation now, but I did spot this hibernating parent bug wrapped inside a leaf recently...

Elasmucha grisea - A Parent Bug

Think how short our own lives would feel if we hibernated. They say that we already sleep an average of 25 years over a lifetime. The other thing that always strikes me is that they cannot close their eyes, no eyelids! 

I actually saw a number of parent bugs and most were afflicted by a parasite egg...

This is most likely the work of the tachinid fly, Subclytia rotundiventris which is a specialist endoparasite of females. The fly strategically places the egg at this point so that the bug is unable to reach to remove it. After hatching, the larva feeds on its host. At the beginning the parasite feeds only on the non-vital parts of the bug, but finally it kills it.

Interestingly, the larva ‘permits’ the parent bug to continue caring for the juveniles until their third stage. However, the adults often die before the end of maternal care. Not that the ones I am seeing now will be about to give birth - wrong time of year.

On the same walk, I saw this spider walking on tippy-toe...

I think this has all been pretty cathartic for me and I am sure that your short attention span has been stretched to the max, so I shall apply the brakes at this point and end with another of my Japanese bugs that I found just yesterday in the garden...

Stephanitis takeyai - Andromeda Lacebug (Tingidae)

They sure are strange looking bugs when you look closely...

This information is from the excellent British Bugs website: This species is a fairly recent arrival in the UK and was first recorded in 1998. It is native to Japan, where it feeds on Pieris japponica and has been introduced into the USA and Europe via the plant trade. As well as Pieris, it also uses Rhododendron and azaleas as hostplants and is regarded as a pest in ornamental gardens.